www.2advanced.com

President and COO for 2A | Aliso Viejo, CA

As usual: you in a few words?
My name is Eric Jordan, and I am a designer with an overactive imagination, too many ideas with not enough time, and I head up a team of great guys who love to push the envelope.

Your job and position at the moment?
I am currently President and CCO for 2Advanced Studios, a company I started in late 1999.

Your career went quite fast since the beginning of the first 2A. What is your opinion on that now?
When I first started 2A, I didn’t want us to ever get dragged into the corporate quicksand that so many design firms find themselves in. I think that by avoiding what most corporate design firms do (over-market and under-develop) we managed to get through to people. People are more sophisticated now and they can tell when they are being marketed to. We never wanted to market our ideas to people through silly corporate-speak, we just wanted to show them that we can ENTERTAIN. I think that’s been the key to our success.


The 2A style is certainly the most ripped-off on the internet and the majority of the people think - and they’re right - that 2A is a reference.
But I feel that the people in the field have more mixed feelings about it. What are the critics that you often receive, and what are your answers to them?
They say that “imitation is the best form of flattery,” which I can understand to an extent. Myself, I can remember times of being inspired by something and thinking “This is great, I need to do something like this.” What I have learned over time though, is that there will always be copycats, but to varying degrees. What gives me hope is that every so often out of those 10,000 plagiarists, you get one person who hones in on the “essence” of what we have created to tell their own story and who isn’t directly ‘ripping’ our hard work. This isolated instance tends to borne a new artist into the industry, and therein lies the ‘flattery.’ These are the people I respect and the people I implore to keep pushing forward. Copycats, however, are people aspiring to be artists but who will never have the heart of an artist; their sole mission in life is to profit from other’s creativity. As such, we tend to take a very rigid legal stance with these people, and are not afraid to spend money in order to defend our principles. We must receive 10 emails each day referencing URLS that have copied/stolen on whole or in part our work products. This in turn has generated a whole lot of additional exposure for our company, but also now has people making comments in various Community forums such as, “That looks (feels) like 2A”, or “That is the 2A Style”. Being associated with a Style or any Movement is really quite flattering; although we would much rather it didn’t happen through the many copies of our work that pop-up out there. It’s almost sad really - as this tends to lead to negative connotations regarding our style. But it is a real issue for us, to the point that most recently we retained a full-time intellectual property Attorney to directly combat the mass infringements we generally find.

By leading 2Advanced, are you still involved in the creation (like using the software), acting like an art director or just making commercial stuff?
I’ve never believed in the “art director who doesn’t design” concept, it just seems ridiculous to me. I have always been 100% hands on, and always will be. The day I start telling people what to do and not doing anything myself, is the day I hang up my hat in this industry. I am just as immersed as the rest of the team, and would rather pull the hellish hours than see them suffer, since I started this whole fiasco :)

The typical day of Eric Jordan?
My day typically starts with a healthy dose of caffine (I do love my coffee). I tend not to go for the fancy types of coffee, just a simple “coffee of the day” with plenty of cream and sugar. So, after about 5-6 cups and my brain has caught up with my mouse, I am ready to work. After sorting through hundreds of morning emails, I check out how the guys are doing around the studio, and make sure they have what they need and if they need any help. If everyone is squared away, I dive into my own projects which tend to be a mix of comprehensive designs, flash, After Effects, and 3D. Of course it varies, but I almost always have my hands in one, or all, of these areas every day. Lunch is either done in-house (so I can continue plugging-away at a project) or 2A does a group lunch where everyone goes out to the same restaurant and we all just have a good time together. Up until 7-8pm I make sure all clients are well updated and everything is squared away for the next day. When I get home, I typically spend a few hours on personal stuff, experimental design, music, etc.


What is - according to you - the importance of learning art and design in school?
I can’t really speak to design school and its importance since I am a self-taught designer. I dropped out of college. I believe there is an advantage to never being school in formal design techniques because it as a sophomore to learn on my own. I think being self-taught allows you to find your own voice and never follow a pre-defined process. The best way to break the rules is to have never learned them at all.

Your goals in life?
To grow as a designer, an artist, a human being. I want to take in all around me and communicate as much as I can to people around me, the beauty of life.

What about your DJ life?
My DJ career plays a big part in how I design. Much of the earlier versions of 2advanced were greatly based on inspiration I drew from DJing in Los Angeles, just the essence of dance culture and its aura. Now I draw from my DJ experience to produce music and audio for the interactive projects at 2advanced.


2Advanced has now specialized in many other fields than just pure “web design”. What are the other services that you are offering?
Since its inception, 2advanced has branched out into 3D Design/Animation, Broadcast design, and Visual Effects Design.
It is not typical for a web design studio to branch out into these areas, but I never wanted 2advanced to be pigeon-holed as a “web-design studio”. Of course we started out specializing in online media, but I have always had greater expectations. I have always had a passion for film, and 3D. I wanted 2advanced to open into those areas from the very start. I think the only hurdles we had at the beginning where the technology barriers, and our ability to learn them. Over time we have had the honor of participating in projects that forced us to learn 3D and Broadcast technologies, and thus by learning these programs we have been able to justify our expansion into new industries, bringing our imaginative skills to bear on the technologies and the challenges of the project.

What are the actual ways you’re trying to experiment?
Experimentation is important to the design process. It helps open your mind to new approaches that might be used in client work. I do a lot of photography at the moment. Photography captures things that you might not otherwise notice: the way light bends around a corner, the way a texture catches light and shadow, the way things move and how they blur or obscure the foreground or background.

What is the future of 2Advanced?
I hope to expand 2Advanced Studios into the real of motion pictures; to create visual effects, 3D, and audio for feature movies one day. Additionally, I would like to aid in the development of future interfacing technologies (GUI design and development), to help facilitate the realization of the future we all see in movies and read about in books.


What keeps you going in the biz (if it is a business for you)?
That’s just the thing: it is not a business to me. Every day I get to come to work and create art, and express my ideas and thoughts in a way that is deeply enjoyable to me. I could not imagine doing anything else.

How do you feel the future of web design / graphic design and what will be your role in it?
I hope that 2advanced will have some role in shaping the way people interact with the web. I want to be on the brink of technology as it evolves and changes, and grows. I hope that our studio can bring new ideas to the table, and inspire others to do the same.

How have you evolved with computers and how does this interaction affect your everyday life?
Computers have always been with me. Since a little boy my parents were always trying to pry me away from it, but I couldn’t be pulled away. I’ve grown up with computers all my life, watched them change and grow. Computers inspire me, and always will. Every day I see people interacting, scanning, calculating, researching, building, arranging, and learning with computers. Its such an incredible platform, and to be a part of developing that platform is amazing and keeps me inspired.


What is flash for you?
Flash is the jumping off point, It is the first step in changing the way everything works on the internet. It allows us to finally communicate emotion over a computer, Flash is the theatre of the internet.


The global working material of the staff?
2Advanced is primarily a PC-based studio. We do, however have Macs that we utilize for testing purposes. Each designer/programmer is equipped with state-of-the-art systems, and works with Dual 21 inch monitors. We utilize Canon scanners to digitize sketches, etc. Most of the designers use various types of Digital Cameras. We also utilize a 6000 square foot data center, which is where the machines that make up our 3D render-farm are housed, as well as our back up servers. The render farm enables us to render our 3D sequences 50 times faster than using a single machine. The data center also serves the hosting side of our business, 2Advanced.net.

Are the 2A projects made intern or are you hiring freelancer for the works?
2Advanced does not utilize any form of freelance design. We believe that in order to carefully control quality, all design must be done in-house at the studio’s World Headquarters.


How many people are now working at 2A, and what are the proportions of designers/ coders / hardware specialists?
2advanced consists of about 20 people total. 70% are Designers, 20% are coders, and the final 10% are hardware/network specialists.

How important is human contact for you in the job?
Human contact is extremely important for what we do. We rely on the closeness of our team. We are almost like a family; all of us know each others strengths and weakness. Thus, we can work together in order to come up with the best solution/approach to a project.

Now more personal : with the ton of work that you have at 2A, are you able to have a more private life, in being able to think about every thing else than the job?
Having a life outside of the design industry is very difficult with the amount of work we constantly have. We spend late nights, and even weekends at the studio or home finishing up, polishing, or optimizing projects. When we aren’t working on projects, we are working on internal projects (like the next version of 2advanced), experimenting, or learning new programs. Though, we make a living at being artists, being creative and having fun with the people that we work with. Therefore, sometimes it doesn’t even feel like a job.


What about your clothes? (style, brands)
I like to think I have some fashion sense, being a designer and all :)
I typically wear a lot of white, clothes with a very “Mediterranean” feel. I would say my favourite brand is Banana Republic.

Any advice?
Let your own voice come out through design, you will never get anywhere emulating the voice of others. Find what you have to say, and say it your way. Don’t rely too heavily upon formal education or some of the rigid rules that design schools tend to teach. Look inside yourself and feel that it’s ok to break the rules and that may be the best way to find something new, and that comes from the heart.

Also, do not rely entirely upon formal education to teach you ground breaking techniques, as that can only come from yourself. What is taught in schools has already been done a thousand times over, and it is regurgitated on a daily basis. In order to create something truly unique, you must look within yourself, as that is where only unique ideas can come from. None of us are the same, and so what you create can never be the same as anyone else’s.